


Investigaytion Team

by the_bright_eyed_demigirl



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Coming Out, Internalised Homophobia, Multi, iiiiiiiiiiii'm coming out so you better get this party started
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:39:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5384510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_bright_eyed_demigirl/pseuds/the_bright_eyed_demigirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Character study. How the Investigation Team worked out that they were, in fact, an Investigaytion Team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Investigaytion Team

Yu Narukami was fourteen years old, and eating his lunch in the corner of a crowed school cafeteria, silently observing his new classmates. He had not known them for very long. He didn’t think he would know them for very long overall, so it didn’t matter. All the same, it made perfectly good sense to know a little bit about them, just in case.

(Just in case. Now there was a mantra he’d repeated to himself a lot over the years. It wouldn’t be particularly useful until he turned sixteen and ended up in a place where “just in case” could be the difference between life and death. Literally.)

He raised his chopsticks to his lips, carefully watching. Sato-san was pretty, he thought. She was in his class, and she was apparently “the popular one”. She had long brown hair, and large brown eyes. Yu found himself agreeing entirely with the commonly-held opinion that she was the most beautiful girl in the class.

If Yu were pressed further on the subject – not that anyone ever would press him on it – he might add that Hayashi-san was a little more attractive, objectively speaking. Sato-san was very pretty, true, but something about Hayashi-san… he was well-kept, that was for sure, and had a certain sense of style to him that caught Yu’s eye.

Hmm. Another mouthful of sushi.

…Less sauce next time, maybe.

Hayashi-san and Sato-san, as it happened, were speaking to each other at that moment. Yu could not hear what they were saying. He tried to listen all the same. They both had nice voices, too. Lyrical. Hearing them speak together was wonderful, even if he couldn’t quite make out the words.

Another mouthful of sushi.

Something occurred to Yu.

He cast his eyes away from the pair and looked around the room. Most there were very much approaching the teenage years with a sort of overblown awkwardness, but some had figured it out quickly.

Yu wondered where it had been that he’d first thought that his new classmates were, on average, more attractive then at his previous school. It couldn’t have been many schools ago. He _was_ only fourteen…

Hm. But it was _all_ of them who were more attractive, that was for sure.

Yu wouldn’t fully consider what this meant until he got home and realised that, oh, wait, he was attracted to _everyone_ regardless of gender. He promptly had a minor panic attack, calmed down, and decided that it didn’t matter because he was probably not going to ever get a date anyway.

(Again, a place where “just in case” mattered a lot changed things there. Inaba was an oddly validating place.)

\--

Yosuke Hanamura was sixteen and _not gay_ , thank you very much!

Okay, yes, fine. Yu Narukami was ridiculously handsome. Anyone could see that. The bowl cut was silly, but grey was a surprisingly nice colour. He had a strong jaw – always good – and was muscular – again, good. But that muscle hid under a layer made from eating strange things and too much beef, which _should_ have been weird but was really just a kind of cute quirk –

Yu Narukami was not _cute._ No. Handsome, yes, Yosuke was willing to admit that much, but not _cute._ Guys didn’t find their best friends cute. Girls could do that, guys, not so much.

(He couldn’t think of a good reason why not except that they just _couldn’t_. In retrospect, this should have been a red flag.)

Anyway, Yosuke had more important things to worry about than a looming identity crisis. For instance, the person he _actually_ found attractive had been murdered and now he was trying to catch her killer. Which involved supernatural powers and adopting a bear monster from another dimension. See? More important things to worry about than whether or not Yu Narukami was cute!

Which, for the record, _he was not._

It wasn’t until Yosuke Hanamura was seventeen and bawling his eyes on in the arms of his best friend that he realised that yeah, Yu was sort of cute.

Guys did _not_ hug their best friends around the waist, but Yosuke had to admit after a while, he was sort of… comfortable? It was nice, and despite himself Yosuke found himself clutching at Yu’s shirt. It was warm, and kind of… soft? But tough as well, and that was _nice,_ and _fuck._

Fuck!

The next morning, Yosuke apologised to Kanji and considered it a miracle that he didn’t get punched in the attempt.

Yu Narukami was cute, and Yosuke Hanamura _might_ have been gay. He wasn’t sure, yet, but – something told him that was okay.

\--

Chie Satonaka was thirteen, and a boy was being creepy about her best friend for the first time.

“Look, Satonaka,” he said, “all I’m saying is, do you know if Amagi-san’s single or not?”

Chie scowled and folded her arms. Even at thirteen, her glare could make people back off from whatever they were trying. She’d been told off for fighting more than once. _Boys won’t like you if you scowl and fight,_ they said.

“Who cares? She’s thirteen. She’s not interested in boys yet.”

He snorted.

“What about Nishimura-san, then?”

Chie rolled her eyes.

“That lasted a week, and they broke up ‘cause he didn’t like her hairclips. Yukiko isn’t interested. _Go away._ ”

As he walked off, Chie had to laugh. Seriously, they were _thirteen!_ Chie wasn’t sure entirely when girls started looking at boys differently, but right now all of the boys in her year were a bunch of tools who thought that barely-cracking voices meant they were ready for marriage or something. _She_ sure wasn’t interested, and since Yukiko had higher standards than her for everything except jokes, _Yukiko_ wasn’t interested either.

Chie Satonaka was fourteen, and the boys weren’t getting any more attractive. They were getting more persistent, though. She sort of couldn’t blame them. Yukiko was growing up pretty, with long hair and beautiful eyes, and god she looked good in red.

Chie Satonaka was fifteen, and starting to realise that she might have a problem when even the slightest hint that a boy was about to try talking to Yukiko was sending her into a rage.

…Chie Satonaka was sixteen, nearly dead from her own repressed feelings, and standing in front of some weird Bruce Lee samurai woman thing, and realising that maybe this wasn’t a problem after all.

\--

 

Yukiko Amagi was sixteen, and wondering something.

“Hey, Yu-san,” she said as they walked along the rainy riverbank, “do you think it’s normal to want to kiss your best friend?”

Yu shrugged.

“I want to kiss _my_ best friend,” he replied, “but then again, I’m not normal.”

Yukiko snorted ungracefully.

“It’s just that, you know, if Chie ever gets a boyfriend, is she even going to know what to _do_ with him? I feel like this is something I should be concerned about, you know?”

Yu made a non-committal noise.

A few weeks later, she tried to ask him out and was politely turned down. Once she’d gotten over the disappointment, she realised that she was actually kind of glad.

After all, if she was kissing Yu, that meant she couldn’t kiss Chie.

\--

Kanji Tatsumi was fifteen, standing in an evil bathhouse born from a crisis about a boy in a blue hat, and wondering what the fuck he’d done to deserve _any of this._

\--

Rise Kujikawa was sixteen, sitting outside in the food court at Junes, and having a right royal argument.

“It’s not _weird!_ ” She folded her arms and pouted. “All I’m saying is that if Senpai was a girl, I’d totally still want to kiss her. That’s not weird. He’s just really good-looking!”

“Rise-chan, I never said it was _weird,”_ Naoto said from over their manga-with-a-novel’s-cover-hiding-it. “I said it wasn’t exactly _heterosexual._ There is a large difference.”

“Not to _some_ people,” Kanji muttered darkly.

Rise sank back in her chair.

“I’m not gay.”

“Evidently not,” Naoto said. “If you were, I doubt you’d drape yourself over Yu-senpai as you do. Attraction to multiple genders, however, is entirely possible and normal.”

“You’re basing this off the fact I said I’d kiss Senpai if he were a girl. But he’s a guy. It doesn’t count.”

Even as Rise said it, she was doubting herself.

“No, I’m not,” Naoto replied, “I’m basing this off the fact that you spent an _hour_ on the phone to me last night talking about – I’m paraphrasing here – how cute Kanamin looks in her new video.”

Kanji choked on his animal crackers. Rise went approximately the colour of a tomato and stormed off. When she’d calmed down, she came back over to find Naoto fixed upon their totally-not-a-concealed-manga once more, and the topic was dropped.

A few days later, Rise revisited that video, and realised that Naoto was completely right about everything.

As. Per. Usual.

\--

Naoto Shirogane was sixteen, and deciding that gender was bullshit.

Really, why did it _matter_ if they were male or female? Certainly, it had no effect on how well they worked, either as a detective or at school. It had little effect on interpersonal relationships from their perspective. They’d found that their closest friends did not mind, and those who did seemed close-minded.

No, the only points at which it _had_ mattered were when other people had reacted negatively. And that was not anything to do with Naoto’s own competence level.

So, then… what did that mean?

They shivered. Winter in Inaba was desperately cold.

…Naoto Shirogane did not care about gender. Fact.

Correction – Naoto Shirogane did not care about _their own_ gender. Male, female, otherwise – they did not care. Fact.

Did Naoto Shirogane care about other people’s gender?

They thought about it.

Yu Narukami was handsome. This was a well-agreed opinion. Naoto agreed with it themselves, and fancied they’d had a brief crush, as had most of Inaba, apparently. Kanji Tatsumi’s attractiveness was not as well-agreed, but if he asked Naoto out tomorrow, well, they would probably get out a “yes” amongst the stuttering. Rise Kujikawa… _everyone_ agreed that she was attractive, and Naoto was inclined to agree.

Naoto Shirogane had a preference for men. Fact.

This did not rule out women. Fact.

And should Naoto meet another who cared as little about the whole thing as they did, well, Naoto would not be discouraged. Fact.

\--

Teddie had no identifiable age.

“ _WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?”_

He did, however, have a very, very loud voice. Yosuke winced at the sound of his offended shrieking.

“Dude, volume.”

“ _Boys can smooch boys?!_ ”

“Dude, keep it down. And were you not paying any attention when we saved Kanji?”

They were sitting in Yosuke’s room. Well, Yosuke was sitting on his desk chair, and up until recently he’d been strumming idly on his guitar. Teddie was standing by the closet, eyes wide as if he’d just seen the Second Coming, and the Second Coming was a pretty girl with headphones and clips in her hair.

Yosuke shook away the bizarrely specific mental image.

“Uhhh…” Teddie whistled innocently. “I was paying attention _to the Shadows!_ And you didn’t answer my question!”

He wasn’t paying any attention. What a god damn surprise. On the plus side, that meant he probably didn’t fully remember Yosuke’s own Shadow. (Teddie’s memory that far back was hazy to say the least. To be fair, he hadn’t fully existed at that point.)

“Yes, boys can kiss boys, and girls can kiss girls.” Yosuke rolled his eyes, then realised that Teddie’s confusion on this point was probably partially his fault.

Teddie went silent, processing this stunning revelation. His head tilted, his eyes narrowed – and then it really hit him. A lightbulb went off in his head, and Yosuke could tell that he was restructuring part of his very self around this new information. Yosuke really, really hoped that he didn’t start being called “Yo-chan” or something. And if the bear tried it on Kanji, he’d get _destroyed._

“Ooooooh! That explains it!”

“…That explains what, exactly?”

“Oh, Chie-chan and Yuki-chan keep wandering off when we’re in my world,” he said flippantly. “I finally figured it out, they’re smooching when no one’s looking!”

Yosuke spluttered.

“ _WHAT?!_ ”

\--

It was, to be honest, sort of predictable that they were having this conversation in the bathhouse, of all places. Chie and Yukiko were the colour of tomatoes (not the fault of the heat for once), Yosuke was on the other side of the room with his knives over his crotch, Kanji wanted to be _anywhere else_ , Teddie was humming victoriously, Rise was giggling in horror down the telepathic connection, Naoto had their face in their hands, and Yu found the whole thing mildly amusing.

“So, to recap,” Yu said, “Teddie thought that Yukiko-san and Chie-chan were going off to make out in the TV, Yosuke decided to try to see if he was right… and he was.”

“I feel like we’re about to get scolded,” Yukiko said miserably. Chie shuddered. Yu Narukami’s scoldings were legendary.

“Well, I _would_ be scolding you,” he admitted, “but I’ve decided not to, as that would be hypocritical of me.”

…Naoto very slowly raised their head out of their hands. Everyone felt Rise’s confused thoughts drift through the fog and steam towards them.

“Um… what?” Chie winced as she spoke. “Do I want to know what you mean by that…?”

“I thought it was obvious.” He shrugged. “Anyway, do you all remember that time in the lab, when that trap separated us all? And partner and I were the last to rejoin the group?”

Yosuke now went red, sinking to the floor in despair.

“Partner…”

Yukiko immediately bent double with laughter.

“Like I said. Hypocritical.”

“Rise-chan,” Naoto said, head fully up, “I believe you owe me a thousand yen.”

_“Yeah, yeah, never bet against a detective…”_

“You were betting on whether or not partner and I were making out?!” Yosuke’s voice had shot up about three octaves. If he kept it up, he’d sprain his vocal cords.

“Nah,” Kanji said, a sly, vengeful grin appearing on his face, “they were bettin’ on how long it’d take for you to admit it. We figured it was a given that you two were makin’ out.”

Yosuke lost all will to live and very nearly curled up in the fetal position on the floor of the bathhouse. Maybe a Shadow would appear and swallow him up. That would be more fun than this.

“Right, so, that’s five out of eight,” Yu said, steering the topic gently away from his own indiscretions. “At this stage, I’d say it’s likely that it’s seven out of eight. Who’s the token straight friend?”

_“It’s not me,”_ Rise said with a static-filled sigh. _“Definitely not me.”_

“I’m not straight,” Naoto said, “but I shan’t elaborate beyond that because, um, I can’t. So that leaves…”

“Question!” Teddie stuck his clawed paw up in the air. “Straight means a boy who only kisses girls, right?”

Yosuke groaned.

“Um… or a girl who only kisses boys, yeah.” Chie was regarding Teddie suspiciously.

Teddie gasped.

“But… oh, no, Sensei! There _is_ no token straight friend! What are we going to _do?!_ ”

Yukiko crashed to the floor, she was laughing so hard.

“A good question,” Yu said, scratching his chin. “I wonder. Do you think it’s Marie-chan?”

\--

No.

No, it wasn’t.


End file.
